Contact & the musket era

The southern sealing rush

Gangs of sealers worked the far south so intensively that fur seal colonies collapsed within a generation — the first sustained European industry in New Zealand.

The burning of the Boyd

Around 66 crew and passengers were killed and the ship burned at Whangaroa, after the flogging of a rangatira’s son aboard. European shipping avoided the north for years.

Samuel Marsden’s first Christian service

Marsden preached at Oihi Bay on Christmas Day 1814 under the protection of Ruatara, beginning the first permanent mission station in New Zealand.

The Musket Wars

Musket-armed war parties reshaped the map of Māori New Zealand. Perhaps 20,000 died and whole districts changed hands before the fighting burned out around 1840.

Hongi Hika travels to England

The Ngāpuhi leader met King George IV in London, then converted the gifts he received into muskets on the return journey through Sydney.

Te Rauparaha’s migration to Kapiti

Ngāti Toa left Kāwhia and fought their way south, seizing Kapiti Island as a base that controlled Cook Strait and the trade passing through it.

First shore whaling station at Te Awaiti

John Guard set up a shore station in Tory Channel, starting an industry that placed small mixed Māori–European settlements right around the coast.

Kororāreka, the busiest port in the Pacific

Whaling crews, traders, grog shops and no law at all earned the town its reputation as the hell-hole of the Pacific.

The Elizabeth affair

A British captain hid Te Rauparaha’s war party aboard his brig to capture the Ngāi Tahu chief Te Maiharanui — a scandal that helped convince Britain it needed an official presence.

Northern chiefs petition King William IV

Thirteen rangatira asked the King to be a friend and guardian of these islands, worried by lawless traders and by rumours of French designs.

James Busby arrives as British Resident

Britain’s first official in New Zealand arrived with a grand title, no troops, no budget and no legal authority — remembered as a man-of-war without guns.

The flag of the United Tribes is chosen

Twenty-five northern rangatira selected a national flag so that New Zealand-built ships could be registered and trade legally.

He Whakaputanga — Declaration of Independence

He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni

Rangatira of the Confederation of United Tribes declared New Zealand an independent state, with all sovereign power residing in the assembled chiefs.

Invasion of Rēkohu and the Moriori

Te whakaeke i Rēkohu

Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama sailed to the Chathams and took the islands. The Moriori, holding to their covenant of peace, chose not to resist and were nearly destroyed.

Bishop Pompallier founds the Catholic mission

Jean Baptiste Pompallier landed at Hokianga, breaking the Protestant monopoly on missionary work and adding a French presence that unsettled the British.

William Hobson is sent to negotiate a treaty

The Colonial Office instructed Hobson to obtain the free and intelligent consent of Māori to British sovereignty — the brief that produced Te Tiriti six months later.

The New Zealand Company’s Tory arrives

Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s company sent a ship to buy land before Britain could annex the country, forcing the Crown’s hand.